With Bear Activity Up in California’s Cedar Grove, Visitors Should Use Common Sense to Stay Safe, Say Officials

A California black bear roams in Three Rivers, Calif. on Oct. 23, 2015. Brian Melley/AP Photo

Visitors to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains may notice signs posted near campsites or pullouts warning of bear activity in the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon.

“The bears have been a little more active down in the Cedar Grove area,” Sequoia and Kings Canyon public affairs officer Holly Brown told The Epoch Times.

After a weather-induced closure last year, Cedar Grove—in the heart of the glacier-carved Kings Canyon—reopened on June 10, delighting visitors traveling east from Fresno on Highway 180.

The closure was prompted by flooding that caused “significant damage” during the 2022–23 winter season, the National Park Service said.

The lack of human traffic in the area may have prompted black bears—the only species of bear in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park—to reenter the area in greater numbers.

According to the National Park Service, black bears are largely unobtrusive and spend their time looking for food in meadows, trees, and old logs. When it comes to food, however, the presence of humans in the parks can cause problems.

“Most wild animals, including black bears ... naturally avoid or fear humans, but black bears are at an increased risk of becoming food conditioned,” Krysten Kellum, public information officer for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Bay Delta and Central Region, told The Epoch Times.

A bear becomes food-conditioned when it has easy access to human food. This may cause the bear to seek out human food rather than forage for natural food sources, which can then cause problems between bears and humans, who would otherwise stay away from each other.

Visitors may stumble upon signs warning of bear activity on their way to Zumwalt Meadow in the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon, Calif. Summer Lane/The Epoch Times

“We want bears to stay wild. We want bears to source their own food,” Kellum said.

Because bears are attracted to the scent of human food, one way to reduce unwanted interactions with them is to lock up food or scented items in bear boxes or food storage bins.

“If you leave food—or it could even be deodorant or sunblock—in your car, [you] want to make sure all your windows are up,” Kellum said.

She said some bears have learned to identify coolers by sight and encouraged visitors to keep such items locked in the trunk of their car, where a curious bear can’t see them through the window.

“If you’re staying in a tent, don’t take any stuff with odor into the tent,” Kellum said.

She encouraged visitors who want to explore areas like Sierra Nevada to do their due diligence and research the region before arriving.

“Know where you’re going,” she said. “Don’t just show up and discover you’re in bear country.”

Still, anything can happen.

If visitors unexpectedly encounter a bear while walking through the woods, they should make themselves look as big as possible and make a loud noise to scare them off, Kellum said.